1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present application is directed to an associative temporal search of electronic files.
2. Description of Related Art
In working with various electronic documents, presentations, graphics, and other files, numerous files are saved on a computer or shared network. Once a file is saved, a user may spend an unusual amount of time looking for the file in order to view or update the file. When one user may remember the exact file name and location where the file is stored, many users may spend minutes, if not hours, attempting to locate a file on the computer or shared network. In order to more accurately remember file locations, a user may store files in a specific location, such as a “My Documents” folder. While storing files in one location may increase the likelihood of finding a particular file, the user may still have difficulty identifying the particular file from other files stored in the same location. Thus, the user may turn to the use of a desktop search engine to find the intended file.
Known desktop search engines are client resident programs that search and index electronic mail, files, web browser history, and instant messages on a client computer's storage device. Examples of such desktop search engines include Google Desktop™, XI Desktop™, and Microsoft Windows Vista™. With these desktop search engines, a user may enter search terms into a field of the search engine and the search engine will search the electronic mail, files, web browser history, and instant messages to identify those entities that contain that search term. The search term may be found in the content of the entity or meta-tags of the entity. Results of the search may then be provided to the user. In this way, the user is able to obtain easy access to information on their personal computer by performing a text, search term based, search. However, if the user fails to accurately remember the name of the file or a term within the file, the use of a desktop search engine may still not be enough to find a particular file.